Peter Swords King

Senior Tutor and Creative Director

Academy award winning Makeup Designer Peter Swords King is the Senior Tutor and Creative Director at the Bath Academy of Media Makeup.

With a hugely successful film career behind him (and currently as busy as ever) Peter works alongside Melanie Weekley to ensure that students have all they need to be able to achieve their true potential. In addition to his executive role, Peter also takes a selection of classes at the academy.

Peter began his career in 1970 straight out of school. He worked with a variety of small theatre companies before realising his path would be in makeup and hair. He joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre in 1980, which led to him designing the original theatre production of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ in wig design and period work.

Peter has gone on to win both an Academy Award and BAFTA for his work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He’s had more than 25 nominations to date for his exceptional work on the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Peter has distinguished himself as a master of his craft. He has designed the looks for such notable films including: Youth Without Youth on which he collaborated with esteemed director Francis Ford Coppola, King Kong, Nanny McPhee, The Golden Compass, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell no Tales, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Survivor, The Lovely Bones, Thunder Birds and many more.

So far, our BAMM students have accompanied Peter for work experience on Into The Woods, Alice through the Looking Glass, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Mary Poppins Returns.